Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest DRAM chipmaker, yesterday said it is preparing to apply for a permit to continue shipping chips to ZTE Corp (中興通訊) as export restrictions take a new turn due to a US-China trade spat.
Nanya Technology is the second Taiwanese semiconductor company after MediaTek Inc (聯發科) that is facing restrictions on electronic component shipments to ZTE.
MediaTek has received the nod to resume shipping chips to ZTE.
“Nanya Technology has received a notification about restrictions on component exports to ZTE,” the chipmaker said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. “The company will follow the rules and is preparing to apply for a permit.”
The new exports ban would have a minor effect on the company’s operation, Nanya Technology said.
US President Donald Trump’s administration on April 15 banned on ZTE from purchasing electronic components from US manufacturers, as the Chinese firm had allegedly breached US sanctions on exports of US technology to Iran and North Korea.
Nanya Technology shares rallied 1.51 percent to NT$94 after reporting a record-high monthly revenue of NT$7.68 billion (US$257.87 million) for last month.
That represented a 14.25 percent increase from March’s NT$6.72 billion, driven by a 10 percent monthly increase in shipments and a low-single-digit percentage rise in chip prices.
On an annual basis, revenue soared 77.91 percent to NT$4.32 billion.
Separately, memory module supplier Adata Technology Co (威剛科技) last quarter saw net profit nosedive about 94 percent annually to NT$50.89 million as the price of NAND flash memory chips plunged amid excessive stockpiles.
Adata made NT$778 million in the first quarter of 2016.
Earnings per share also tumbled to NT$0.27 last quarter from NT$3.62 a year earlier.
The company swung into an operating loss of NT$115 million in the first three months of this year, compared with an operating profit of NT$827 million a year earlier and NT$457 million in the previous quarter.
“The company’s first-quarter net profit was affected by a decline in solid-state drives (SSDs),” Adata said in a company statement on Monday.
“As SSD inventory has dropped to healthy levels and newly launched smartphones are equipped with bigger memory space, we expect NAND flash to gradually achieve a larger profit contribution,” Adata said.
Revenue last month tumbled 24.36 percent to NT$2.46 billion, from NT$3.25 billion in March. That meant a 2.85 percent annual decline from NT$2.53 billion.
Adata shares yesterday plunged 8.97 percent to NT$63.9 on the weak quarterly earnings.
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